Auto manufacturers stuck in neutral

Editor - Your story on the San Francisco Auto Show failed to convey the hypocrisy that is pervasive in the automobile industry ("Popular color for automakers this year: green," Nov. 23).

The major auto manufacturers may be working hard to "green" their images, but they have done disappointingly little to actually green their fleets. Most automakers display a small handful of clean, green cars at auto shows, but their plants, marketing plans and sales forces still focus mainly on the same old gas guzzlers that spew out far more global warming pollution than necessary.

They're stuck in neutral when our country needs to reduce its dependence on oil more than ever. The time is long overdue for significantly higher miles-per-gallon standards at the federal level and clean car incentives for consumers here in California. Since the automakers won't clean up their cars on their own, our elected officials should require them to.

DAN KALB

Union of Concerned Scientists Berkeley

Weak leadership

Editor - Why bash Bush in your editorial ("Reaching out," Nov. 27) for not "reaching out" earlier to the Israel/Palestinian problem? The blame really lies within the weak and ineffectual leadership of both the Israelis and the Palestinians and with our Congress for funding them.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert can't control the West Bank settlers and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas can't control the rocket attacks from Gaza. Only when our Congress seriously threatens to withhold the billions of dollars of aid to both these leaders will they get real. Until then, we'll only hold their coats at Annapolis.

TOM NIXON

El Cerrito

Small businesses care

Editor - Your cartoon published on Nov. 24, showing small business turkeys being sacrificed by the Democrats to obtain health care coverage for California's uninsured, completely misrepresents the health care needs of small businesses.

It is California's 3.2 million small business owners who are fed up with the ever-rising price of health coverage and who are desperate for comprehensive reform now. A recent poll found that small businesses across California overwhelmingly want to ensure that their employees have health coverage, believe that government must play a key role in the process, and are more than ready to be part of the solution. Eighty percent agree that employers should pay something to provide health care to their employees. They believe, by a 3-to-1 margin, that health care financing is a shared responsibility among individuals, businesses and government, and a substantial plurality supports the health care reform proposal currently pending in Sacramento.

It is this very compromise legislation that is necessary to ensure that California's entrepreneurs can start and grow their businesses, secure in the knowledge that furthering their entrepreneurial dreams, and propelling the California economy forward, will not jeopardize the health of their employees, their families and themselves.

JOHN ARENSMEYER

Founder and CEO

Small Business Majority

Sausalito

Who's responsible?

Editor - I am writing in response to Kristen Quay's letter of Nov. 24, in which she insisted that "we are all guilty" of the tanker Cosco Busan's oil spill in San Francisco Bay because we drive cars and buy foreign goods.

By her curious logic, we are also guilty of the collapse of the highway overpass at the MacArthur Maze last April which resulted from the fiery accident of a tanker truck.

But why stop at gasoline tankers? Surely, those millions of us who buy toys are all guilty of the lead-contaminated toys made in China, just as all salad eaters are guilty of the massive recall of salmonella-tainted spinach.

Quay's logic would make all of us guilty of every mistake, accident, or crime committed by anyone. In the end, holding everyone responsible leads to no one being held accountable.

I agree with Kristen Quay when she says, "We are all to blame for the spill" (letters, Nov. 24). But I take exception when she goes on to observe that "We cannot demand that the flow of foreign goods stop until we stop buying these products."

The fact is we, consumers and citizens alike, have no choice in the matter. As an example, have you ever tried to buy a man's shirt in a department store these days? No matter what the label says, up there on the collar in tiny letters are the words, "Made in China" or "Product of Bangladesh" or "Made in Thailand."

It's all part of what we proudly designated "globalization," which steals American jobs, manufactures American products in foreign countries, then ships those products back to America in ships that leak oil onto our beaches.

So let's put the blame for this where it belongs, on American corporations and the compliant American government that promoted the con game they practice.

Why he kept smiling

Editor - On Nov. 21, we learn that Scott McClellan, former White House press secretary, will reveal in a new book that he was given false information that Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser and former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby were not involved in the identity leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. Instead, it was Rove, Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney, Andrew Card (the president's chief of staff at the time) and President Bush himself who were involved in the deceit ("Ex-aide links Bush, Cheney to CIA leak case") .

Libby was eventually convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in this leak and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Ironically, on Nov. 24, you report that there is a record backlog of clemency cases for federal prisoners ("Record backlog of clemency cases takes toll on federal prisoners"). Bush has granted only 18 cases in fiscal 2007. The article states: "The last action Bush took was to commute the 30-month prison term of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby in July," a few months after his conviction and before serving any time. Now I understand why Libby was always smiling in the photos and videos of him going to and from court.

Get going, Congress

Editor - Your article, "U.N. climate conference crucial as Arctic melts" (Nov. 27) paints a bleak picture of an impending global disaster if both industrialized and developing nations do not act immediately to reduce greenhouse gases. But, after all, they are having a conference and then, maybe, another two-year "process of intensified negotiations." Wow.

Is there some reason why members of Congress are not, with all dispatch, passing legislation to reduce the vehicle speed limit to 55 mph? This seems like such a simple first step to significantly reduce both carbon emissions and the country's dependence on foreign oil. Are we really all content to just rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic?

BILL THOMPSON

San Francisco

Triumph of the apes

Editor - I totally agree with Ron Neufeld's letter of Nov. 21: Climate change is merely a symptom of overpopulation. Unfortunately, none of our current crop of politicians is discussing this. So, we're probably doomed. But in the meantime, there's a bright side to all this: Isn't it an incredible achievement for one species of fancy apes to wreck an entire planet? Just thought I'd share.